Tuesday, May 22, 2012

Blog Tour: Wizard by Paula Paul! (review & Interview)

Blurb: In a world corrupted by acceptance, could you be yourself? Meghan’s life had never been easy, either being overlooked as Merlin’s younger sister, or getting the wrong kind of attention for being different. When Merlin’s attempt to save Meghan’s life by transporting her to eleventh century Amorika, France, goes awry, she finds herself in twenty-first century America.

There, she discovers that it is all too easy to fit in with the popular crowd—if she hides who she really is. Meghan faces the choice of condoning the same oppression that she had encountered before or giving up her newly won acceptance and becoming an outcast again. She soon realizes that her decision will not only affect her life, but will determine whether a friend lives or dies to the same forces that once threatened her. When the teenage sister of Merlin, the world's most powerful magician, is confronted by life-threatening bullying, where can she run? Megan attempts to escape to the 21st Century but is forced to confront the same demons she hoped to leave behind. WIZARD is a heart-stopping novel that will hold young readers enthralled from the first page to the last." Lois Duncan author of Stranger with My Face and I Know What You Did Last Summer.

My Review:

Ok so I am going to keep this review small, mostly in part of how big the interview seems. When we start the book we are taken right into the action of things. I really liked that move, since most books start out really slow, not that I mind, but I like to get to the action.

This book was a fun & fast read, with characters that were like-able, I mean, we all at some point feel as though we have been left in an unknown world to fend for ourselves, hello high school? The begging will captivate you. There are parts that made me go, "aww" & I loved the entire feel of the book. It felt real & it kept me interested. Especially the boy drama, LOVED! You have to go out & READ IT!

4/5 Chicken feathers.This was a great book but was missing something that made the chicken run in circles.

Interview:

1.If you had to describe yourself in just one word, what would it be and why?

A:The first word that comes to mind to describe myself is"persistent." Sometimes, people, like my husband for example, translate that to "stubborn." I think of myself as persistent because when I decide I want to accomplish something, I stay with it until it's done. I know that adage that says a person who keeps doing the same thing over and over again and failing each time is insane. The trick is to keep exploring new avenues to go down, new ways to do things, new ways to improve. I think that's what I've done with my writing career, and now I have 25 published novels. None of them are self-published, but I'm going to do that eventually.

2.Can you tell me a little bit about Wizard and what inspired it?

A:So I'm going to tell you a little about WIZARD. Most of the books I've published have been adult novels, although I did write and publish novels for middle grade students several years ago. My agent asked me to try my hand at writing a YA novel, and I agreed to do it, not having any idea what I would write. However, when I sat down at my computer, this teenage girl popped into my head and told me she was Merlin's sister and that she had been accidently transported to twenty-first-century America, and that it was really confusing to her. She also told me that when her brother transported her, she had landed in a duck pond on a university campus, not unlike the duck pond on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque where I live. I took it from there and created a reason for her having to leave Avalon--she had to flee or be killed. I didn't know why someone wanted to kill her, so I had to work that out as well. When it came to me that some people in Avalon hated her because she used a wizard's wand instead of a witch's wand that female magicians are supposed to use, I almost discarded the idea because that seemed such a nonsensical reason to hate someone or to try to kill anyone. That's when it dawned on me that when people hate or distrust others, it's almost always for being different in some way, and that doesn't make sense either. That's when I knew I had a plot. My character, Meghan, made friends with Tyler who was bullied and had his life threatened because he was "different." Meghan had to decide if she was going to come to his defense, but it couldn't be an easy decision or the plot would deflate. I gave her several reasons not to help him, and that is, as the saying goes, where the plot thickens.

3.What do you hope that readers take away with them after reading your book?

A: Of course I want the reader to be entertained, but I hope the story will also make people think about how to set priorities when the going gets tough. It's easy to do the right thing when we have nothing to lose, but what if we do? How do we decide what to do then?

4.I find it interesting to know what authors find most productive… Do you use a pen and paper or laptop? Quiet room at home or bustling café? Basically, what gets your creative juices flowing?

A: I use a computer to write my books, sometimes my PC and sometimes my laptop. In another life, I had a career as a newspaper reporter and had to write my stories fast on a computer, so it comes natural to me. I like the room to be quiet when I write, but I've certainly done a lot of writing in situations where I had to shut out the noise. When my kids were young for example. I can't shut out music, though. I get too involved with music to shut it out. I do my best creative work in the afternoon. I like to start writing around one or two o'clock, take a break for dinner, then go back to it and work until about eight o'clock. If things are going well or I have a deadline, it's not unusual for me to write until midnight. I've tried to start writing in the morning, but it's hard for me to be creative then. I end up just sitting and staring at the screen.

5.What is one wish that you hope will come true?

A: The one wish I hope will come true is that all wars will end. I had a son in Iraq and a son-in-law in Afghanistan. Having them there was like living in hell. My secret selfish wish is to win the Pulitzer for fiction.

6.If you weren’t a writer, what would be your ideal job?

A: This is the hardest question for me, and for a long time I couldn't come up with an answer. I have wanted to be a writer since I was a little girl and just never thought of myself as anything else. Finally, I decided that if I weren't a writer, I'd be a painter. I would paint like Renoir and use images of light to work magic.

7.If you were stranded on a desert island what 3 things would you want with you?

A: A computer, a generator and a cell phone.

8.Is there a song you could list as the theme song for your book or any of your characters?

A: This question made me laugh because I have one of my characters singing "Moves Like Jagger" in order to annoy and distract people. I don't particularly like that song, though. The song that really fits as a theme for this book is "I'm Glad You Came" by the Wanted.

9. What is your favorite Quote?

A: I've always said my favorite quote is from Winston Churchill, "Never, never, never give up." However, I recently heard of a quote that Ruth Gordon coined (She's the older woman in the movies Harold and Maude and Rosemary's Baby). She said, "Never give up, and never under any circumstances face the facts." That is perfect! Because the facts in this case are the insurmountable obstacles.